But, I still made comfort food. Because I can. 97 degree temperatures can’t stop my culinary recognition of the change of seasons. Take that, Tucson!
I have absolutely no idea where this recipe originally came from, but my mom made it for us growing up and it was one of my favorite cold weather foods. It’s fantastic over brown rice, which I always forget to make until the last minute, which doesn’t work well since our rice cooker needs about 2 hours to cook brown rice.
I had never made Cowboy Beans myself until the last year, so I was quite surprised when the ingredient list included Pork and Beans (weird) and celery (cooked celery is gross), but the ingredients combine into the heartiest barbecue-y, sloppy joe-ish, tangy mixture of meat, beans, and vegetables. It’s warm and filling and the perfect dinner for a chilly night.
Or, in our case, a 97 degree night.

Cowboy Beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 small green pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1/2 lb bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1 can (1 lb 15 oz) Pork and Beans
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1 Tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tsp Worcerstershire sauce
Instructions
- In a skillet, brown ground beef with onion, celery, and green pepper.
- Put mixture into a slow cooker.
- Add remaining ingredients.
- Set to low and cook for 6-8 hours.
Heidi@OneCreativeMommy.com
Monday 17th of September 2012
I am totally new to your site. I love beans. I'll be trying this. Thank you for all of your great recipes and ideas. We are very new to gluten-free at my house.
I am starting a Gluten-Free Share Page on OneCreativeMommy.com. Today was my first post. I would love it if you visited and linked up some of your great ideas. I don’t mind if they are free or if they are items to buy. We’re all looking for ideas! I hope to see you there.
Becky (So Very Blessed)
Wednesday 12th of September 2012
Totally weird ingredients! And I can absolutely believe my mom just throwing that together at the last minute! Cornbread Taco Surprise Casserole sounds delicious!
Richard & Natalie
Wednesday 12th of September 2012
Weird ingredients, but I'm sure it's tasty. The list of ingredients makes me think your mom needed to improvise dinner one night and it was a success! I've made a few dinners using that method, one being my Cornbread Taco Surprise Casserole.